The Long Way Home

I’m away on business one day this week but I still want to keep my volume up ahead of the Saintelyon – now less than three weeks away! – and with end-of-year pressures at work rising. Fitting in the longer runs, the cold weather runs, and the night running, then, means thinking a little creatively and so that’s why I planned to run home from work today and try and record a 15km effort before heading home to dinner and warmth.

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure where exactly I was going to ‘find’ those 15km as the office is only about 5 or 6 kilometers from home. I could throw in a little detour through the park at Gerland, maybe do something similar around Mulatiere or Confluence, or make a straight shot for the Parc de la Tete D’Or and find the distance heading up the berges and around the green space there. Wherever I ended up going, I knew it would be a good way to get the week started and a nice way to lay down some early kilometers towards this week’s 80-100 kilometer goal.

And how hard would it be to find 10 kilometers between Gerland and the Presque Isle, anyway?

The first couple of kilometers came easy. I left work, moved through the Parc de Gerland, crossed over the bridge to the Confluence Museum, and the crossed over into Mulatiere – and it was here I took my first detour. I headed towards Oullins for a few hundred meters and then turned uphill and tested myself on some ascent. I was feeling good, listening to some interesting music (Arrested Devlopment, Eminem, The Hood Internet), and enjoying the post-work exercise.

After some up and downs in Mulatiere I dropped back down to the Saone and headed towards Lyon. I checked my watch and realized I would have to find a few more kilometers along the way if I wanted to finish with the 15K I had planned. Hence, when I got to the base of the Old City, I decided to head uphill and explore some more climbs.

I have to admit, I didn’t really know where I was going here. Oh, sure, I knew that up was Fourviere and that down meant I was either heading to Tassin or Lyon, and this I could tell by the lights I was looking at. However, I wasn’t exactly sure which road was which and so my route – as the map above attests – is a bit out of the ordinary. It was no problem, though, and eventually I turned back for home, pushed over the top at Saint Just, and headed downhill for the final kilometer to the river and then to Jacobins where I clicked stop on the Garmin with 18 kilometers in the bank.